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Moms Sells Tickets to Teach Daughter a Lesson

Every
parent has a different way of going about disciplining their kids, but
for some, grounding or taking away something near and dear to your
misbehaving child's heart makes perfect sense. A mother from Fargo,
North Dakota, named Cindy Bjerke is making headlines this week for
unapologetically subscribing to that notion. As a punishment for her
daughter's disrespectful behavior, the mom put her teen's Katy Perry concert tickets up for sale on the Fargo/Moorhead Online Garage Sale Facebook page. The post, which has since been deleted, read, "Spoiled brat daughter doesn't deserve these tickets."

Though Bjerke had many supporters "like" her post, others criticized
the mom, saying that the punishment of her daughter should remain
private. As Bjerke told the local news, "It doesn't matter what side
you're on, you're always wrong to somebody." And what she was trying to
do doesn't seem all that wrong at all. It's actually just something that
parents do every day.

Okay, maybe not always by calling their kid out in a public forum,
but Bjerke didn't refer to her daughter by name. But the bottom-line is
that she took away something that her daughter had been given as a privilege.
Concert tickets are something parents should feel free to take away
from their teens in a heart beat. It's far from a necessity. Just like
being able to watch TV or go out to the movies, going to see a concert
is never a kid's right. It's a bonus, a treat, the upshot of being a
good kid.

By taking something like these tickets away, you can send the message
that your kid can't have her cake (misbehavior) and eat it too (get to
go have fun and enjoy something reserved for kids who exhibit good
behavior). You send the message that there are negative consequences to acting out of line,
being disrespectful, acting spoiled and ungrateful. Whether it makes
them BFFs with their moms or not, those are still tough lessons teens
need to learn.

That said, critics of Bjerke may want to think twice before digging
into her parenting. Perhaps airing the punishment in public wouldn't be
how some moms would handle the situation, sure. But this mom didn't do
anything out of line. She was only disciplining her kid in the best way
she saw fit.

I am really tired of parents who need to post publicly how they discipline their kids. I'm not sure if they need a pat on the back or society to tell them they are doing a good job but it seems they are seeking attention on social media in order to validate their parental skills. I also think it's odd when parents refer to their kids as 'spoiled-brats'; because it's not like they became spoiled-brats over night. Honestly, it's the most insecure parents that do stuff like this. If you are a confident person or confident in your parenting abilities you don't need to seek attention on social media. I do think this mom's parenting style is a knee-jerk reaction. If she wanted to sell the tickets as a consequence for bad behavior that is perfectly fine but making the title 'spoiled brat daughter doesn't deserve these tickets'...that just seems like someone who is looking for attention and needs a few atta girls. Everyone gets frustrated with their teens and needs an outlet to vent but that should not involve exploiting your child on the internet.

If what her daughter did warranted the removal of the tickets then fair enough on that part, selling the tickets makes sense, someone else can go and the mother makes a bit of the money back on them. I'm with her up until there.

Drawing attention to herself and her 'awesome' parenting by posting on a facebook page with 17,000 people about her bratty daughter and her wonderful punishment is just narcissistic and childish. It had absolutely nothing to do with the punishment at all, especially given that the daughter wasn' even in the group and was just an attention-grab. "Katy Perry tickets for sale" would have gotten the tickets sold just as easy (probably easier).

Parents taking away concert tickets as punishment is a tale as old as time, my parents did it to me, my grandparents did it to my parents, my in-laws did it to my husband and both his sisters, and my father in law tells a great story about the time his parents did it to him, I'd easily bet that the quarter of the adult population of the developed world have a "I didn't get to go to that concert" story. What this lady did wasn't really all that interesting, but make a song and dance about yourself online and then suddenly it's interesting. She knew that, that's what she wanted.

I don't know why we're patting someone on the back for doing the "look at me, pay attention to me, I need attention" dance.

Selling the tickets? Fine. However, my listing would have just said " Two Katy Perry Tickets For Sale" that's enough info.

I'm not into public humiliation of children or teens online or in a store. It is not needed to get a point across.. She lost coveted tickets , that's all that needed to be done...and having her clarify to you why she lost him.

Selling the tickets fine, calling your daughter a 'spoiled brat' on facebook not OK at all. If she needed to give a reason for selling the tickets all she had to say was a conflict had come up and they could not use the tickets.

I'm totally fine with selling the tickets and have been known to do similar. However, I was taught that you don't air dirty laundry in public and posting like she did on the internet is airing dirty laundry in public, IMO and completely wrong. Disrespecting your child publicly isn't going to help them become a more respectful person.

I've seen parents around town with for sale signs on their kid's cars and under neath it says kid refuses to get a job to pay for insurance or co-signed for my son who would rather run the streets then pay his part. Not saying it's right just saying it's been done prior to social media. What about the parents who post pictures of their kids holding signs about what they did wrong. Or more recently my cousin has been sharing videos of moms yelling at their daughters and even hitting them with a belt! Craziness. I can't imagine ever publically humiliating my child.

I agree that going to a concert is a privalage, I don't see what the purpose of publicly airing her dirty laundry. My kids have gotten on my nerves, I have pulled privalages, but not publicly humiliated them, but sometimes it would be nice to get them back for all that fustration. But, while I might feel better, it is not what is really needed.

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